Pallet factory can power 1,000+ homes from new green energy plant
CLONDROHID POWER PLANT IS POWERED BY PALLET OFFCUTS AND TREE BARK
A MID CORK company is becoming a powerhouse of green energy after a power plant fuelled by off cuts and tree bark came online last month.
Mid Cork Pallets and Packaging, one of Ireland’s leading producers of pallets for moving goods around the country and internationally to the US, Europe, Japan, has set up a combined heat and power plant on its premises near Clondrohid.
Since coming online in the past number of weeks, the plant is generating 1,200 kilowatt hours and that’s being fed directly to the National Grid.
“We’re going at full belt,” said Mid Cork Pallets CEO Johnny Ó Liatháin. “What we’re generating here is enough to provide for the power needs of up to 1,000 homes.”
At present the company employs 80 workers in Clondrohid and also has a distribution plant in County Meath. Ten people are working in the new firm, Cork Green Energy, which is operating the combined heat and power plant on the Clondrohid site.
The power is generated by burning the offcuts and tree bark from the wood used to produce two million pallets annually in a furnace and this produces a light gas which, in turn, powers a generator which generates the electricity.
While the power generated by the plant is sold to the national grid at a special price set by the government, as part of a scheme to encourage such investment, the heat is used to heat ten kilns which dry the pallets so they can transport goods internationally.
Before drying, each pallet contains up to nine litres of water and unless they are dried they would be unsuitable for transport, particularly international transport.
Set up in 1978, the company has more than 40 years of experience in the pallet business and now Mid Cork Pallets & Packaging
is the largest automated pallet manufacturer in Ireland.
“We have the most modern facilities in Ireland and provide pallets and corrugated packaging solutions to most of Ireland’s largest food and beverage, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies.” said Johnny, who is also well known as the owner of the Cork city hotel, the Rochestown Park.